Rainier Drive (Cedar Cove #6)(104)



Still, she didn’t want to leave Cedar Cove. And she didn’t know how these new contradictions in her life could be resolved.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Rachel said.

“Just remember,” Jane told her, “if you marry Nate, you’re married to the United States Navy, too. You go where they tell you and when they tell you, and you do it without complaint.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Rachel teased, saluting Jane. She sat down and dipped her fork in the steaming chicken and rice entrée. “Actually, it isn’t the navy that scares me. I can deal with navy life, but I’m not sure I can cope with Nate’s mother.”

Just then, Denise, the receptionist, came into the break room. “There’s someone here to see you,” she said, directing the comment to Teri.

“I don’t have an appointment until one,” she muttered, eyeing her half-eaten lunch.

“It’s not a customer,” she said. “It’s that tall, skinny driver.”

“James?” The only reason James would be in Cedar Cove was if he’d driven Bobby.

“There’s someone else with him, too,” Denise added, curling her lip as if to say she didn’t like his companion. “A big, beefy guy.”

“Is everything all right with Bobby?” Teri asked, instantly concerned. She immediately set aside her salad and got to her feet.

“He didn’t say,” Denise told her.

Pushing back the drape, Teri hurried into the salon foyer. Sure enough, James was there. She didn’t recognize the man with him. Like Denise said, he resembled a wrestler with huge biceps beneath a black suit.

“Teri,” James said. “Come with us.”

“Is Bobby with you?” she asked

“He’s in the car,” the other man answered for him, speaking with a heavy accent. One Teri couldn’t identify.

“He is? Why didn’t you say so?” She started out of the shop, with James and his friend following behind. But when she entered the mall parking lot, she couldn’t see the limo.

“Over there,” James said, pointing.

The other man led the way to a white van, where a third man waited. “James?” she asked, suddenly suspicious. Something wasn’t right.

James avoided her gaze.

“What’s going on?” she asked urgently.

“Just do what he tells you,” Bobby’s driver instructed her in a quiet voice.

“Now, just a minute,” Teri said, standing her ground. She wasn’t about to walk off with this…this gangster, not without a very good reason, anyway. “What’s going on here?” she asked again.

James’s cell phone rang, and he looked at the other man before answering. The wrestler type nodded, and James flipped it open. His gaze shot to Teri.

“She’s with me,” he answered, his voice unnaturally high. “No, no, we haven’t been hurt.”

“Is that Bobby?” Teri asked. She noticed that the big guy was walking away.

James nodded.

“Give me the phone,” she said, and James complied. “Bobby?”

“Did they hurt you?”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Teri said. “What’s all this about? Did they threaten you?” She was tempted to race after the big guy and give him a kick he wouldn’t forget. How dare he frighten Bobby this way! “You don’t have anything to worry about,” she assured her husband. “I can take care of myself.”

Bobby didn’t respond.

“Give me James,” he said a moment later.

Teri handed the cell phone back to his driver. The two spoke for a few minutes and then James closed the phone. He offered her a tentative smile. “Nothing’s going to happen,” he announced, his voice trembling.

“Did those gorillas threaten Bobby?” she demanded.

“No,” James said, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. “They threatened you.”

“Me?” she cried. “I’d like to see them try.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” James said in the same shaky voice. “Trust me, you wouldn’t.”

The outrage was building in her. “Who are they?” she demanded. The first thing she intended to do was inform the sheriff and have them arrested for—she didn’t know what but she’d find out. Uttering threats? Blackmail? They were clearly guilty of something.

“I don’t know exactly who they are.” James seemed on the verge of collapse.

Teri took him back inside the shop and into the break room, which had emptied. Jane and Rachel cast her quizzical looks, but she ignored them both.

“That was just to let Bobby know they could get to you anytime they wanted,” James told her.

If this was supposed to frighten Teri, it didn’t. Perhaps she was being foolish, but she really could take care of herself. Bobby had enough on his mind without worrying about her.

As soon as James was seated, Teri poured him a glass of cold water, which he drank in giant gulps.

“All right,” she said angrily. “How much money did they want?”

James stared at her. “They weren’t after money.”

She frowned. What was the point of this charade if it wasn’t money?

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